Hand-dug oil wells of Yenangyaung
Pozos de petróleo excavados a mano de Yenangyaung
- Date
- c. 1795 (documentado) · confidence low
- Place
- Yenangyaung, Magway Region, Myanmar
- Credited to
- Twinzayo families of Yenangyaung
- Field
- Matter & energy
What it is
An oil field where local families dug wells by hand up to about 90 metres deep and raised the crude in buckets with pulleys, for lighting, medicine and wood preservation. Europeans described it in the late 18th century and it was the basis of the Burmese oil industry.
Exploitation long predates its European description (Michael Symes, 1795, counted hundreds of wells); Burmese chronicles mention it from the 13th century, though imprecisely. The 90 m depth is cited in 19th-century accounts.
What it led to
- the Burma Oil Company (1886) and the Burmese oil industry
- export of crude and kerosene from Rangoon
- hereditary rights (twinzayo) over wells